NBCG had an active and productive year, reflecting the efforts and
dedication of the many individuals who make up our memberhsip.
Special
thanks are owed to the chairs of the subgroups for their energetic
and
thoughtful leadership, which infused new vigor into the operations
of
the subgroups. Annual reports submitted by individual chairpersons
covering the activities of their respective subgroups are presented
in
Appendices 1-A, 1-B, and 1-C.

Appendix 2 contains the mission statement for NBCG.

Appendix 3 provides an overview of the current governance structure
of
NBCG.

The balance of this report covers the principal actions and programs
engaged in by NBCG during the course of the year.

B. Summary of NBCG Actions and Programs During the Year

1. Preparation of Collections Budget Fund Code Allocations

The budget allocation process for New Brunswick collections has been
delegated to a special standing committee of NBCG, the Budget Allocation
Committee, comprised of the Chair of NBCG, Howard M. Dess, acting as
convenor, plus the Chairpersons of the four NBCG sub-groups: Ilona
Caparros, Chair of the Reference Subgroup; Mary Fetzer, Chair of the
Social Sciences Subgroup; Jackie Mardikian, Chair of the Science
Subgroup; Kevin Mulcahy, Chair of the Arts & Humanities Subgroup;
and
with Mary Page serving in the capacity of special consultant.
This
committee assumed responsibility for allocating the funds listed below
among the hundreds of fund codes applicable to the New Brunswick
collections.

For the current academic year ending June 30, 2000, the NB collections
budget was distributed as shown below among the major academic
disciplines and special functions. The task of the Budget Allocation
Committee was then to allocate these gross amounts among the various
fund codes applicable to each sector.

In order to meet the state fund budget allocations summarized above,
it
was necessary, once again, to trim our journal collections. The
principle adopted by NBCG was to cut each subject area by an amount
that
reflected the current inflation rate for that discipline, as published
annually in Library Journal's "Periodical Price Survey".
The overall
cancellation target for RULS was $327,000 and New Brunswick's share,
at
72%, was $235,435. After applying the inflation factors published
for
the various disciplines, this overall NB cancellation target was
apportioned as follows among the various broad subject areas and
functionalities:

These cancellation targets were then further broken down by specific
subject area and then allocated to individual fund codes. It
then
became the responsibility of the selectors in charge of those subject
caregories to make the final cancellation decisions.

In the case of the sciences, for some years now, since nearly
all state
funds have been dedicated solely to journal subscriptions plus much
smaller purchases of monographic standing orders (as opposed to
individual monograph purchases), the entire amount shown above
for
Science essentially represents the dollar amount of journal
cancellations that had to be absorbed and distributed amongst the
various science disciplines. In the case of the Arts & Humanities
and
the Social Sciences sectors, because journal costs are generally much
lower than in the sciences, and in a majority of cases fall in the
same
price range as monographs in these subject areas, selectors
had the option of either cancelling journals or reducing monograph
purchases by an equal dollar amount.

An overview of the end results of the cancellation process is summarized
below:

Collections budget planning for AY 2001 was initiated early this year
in
an effort to allow sufficient time to consider how best to carry out
the
allocation process once we are informed what our overall budget for
the
year will be. Various allocation methodologies are being considered
for
the three major subject groupings (A&H, Soc. Sci., and Sci.).
The goal
here is to provide the most equitable distribution of funds to the
various disciplines, taking into account the disparate and sometimes
conflicting needs of the academic community we serve.

Major problems faced by NBCG in the preparation of budget allocations
are:

* Late receipt of library budget from the University administration.

The overall library budget is usually not received from the University
until late September or October, whereas journal cancellation and
renewal decisions must be communicated to vendors and publishers by
a
deadline of Sept. 15. In prior years this scheduling mismatch
has also
resulted in delaying the initiation of monograph purchases until late
in
the year (or even well into the following year), thereby increasing
the
chances that desired books would not be available to us because shorter
press runs result in titles going out of print faster than ever.
In the
coming year, this situation will be ameliorated by the approval plan
introduced last year for the A&H and Soc. Sci. subject areas, and
individual monograph purchases will be covered by allocating some agreed
upon funding level to individual funds codes in advance of receipt
of
our official budget.

* Coping with publishing inflation rates

It is well recognized that the inflation rate for published materials
for academic and research purposes far exceeds the average rate for
the
U.S. economy as a whole, and this situation has persisted for years.
Moreover, this situation is increasingly exacerbated by the imposition
of premium fees for online access to the content of print journals,
a
trend that has accelerated particularly rapidly in the sciences.
It is
abundantly clear that academic library budgets could never keep pace
with such cost increases, and the end result is the necessity for
successive annual cancellations of still more journals in order to
stay
within budget. The most difficult question now faced by NBCG
is how to
distribute the 2001 cancellation target (yet to be finalized) among
the
various disciplines whose collections in many cases have, over the
years, gradually been reduced to levels where titles of known importance
would have to be eliminated. This situation is particularly
acute in
the sciences, and the Sciences Subgroup is currently studying how best
to proceed this year. The stark fact must be faced that we simply
do
not have the resources to meet all perceived journal needs identified
by
our selectors.

4. Other NBCG Initiatives and Projects

a) Rationalization of NB Journal Collections

Ben Beede has undertaken this project to identify all NB journal titles
now accessible via JSTOR and to determine holdings of these titles
in
the various library units throughout NB (and RULS). . The ultimate
objective is to reduce these journal print holdings to single runs
in
only one library, thereby eliminating overlapping, fragmentary, or
duplicating runs in several libraries and the Annex. A future
objective
will be to extend this study to the entire journal collection.

b) Monitoring Approval Plan Receipts and Return Rates

Several NBCG members took on the responsibility of monitoring approval
plan receipts and return rates, and also to establish procedures for
managing referrals to other colleagues. This task was originally
proposed and overseen by Joe Consoli, followed later by Kevin Mulcahy.

Preliminary statistics for the first 8-9 months of the program starting
in July, 1999, indicate an overall acceptance rate of 93%. Data
for the
full year will provide a more comprehensive picture. Further
refinements and profile adjustments will undoubtedly be required on
an
ongoing basis, but as of now, we conclude that the NB approval plan
is
functioning quite satisfactorily.

c) Missing Book Procedures

Jackie Mardikian chaired a committee which investigated the manner in
which NB libraries dealt with missing books, and then formulated a
procedure for dealing with this matter. The committee report,
issued
Nov. 2, 1998, was slated for implementation starting in Jan. 1999,
but
did not become fully functional at that time. Jackie then undertook
a
further study, in concert with NB Access Services Dept., to determine
what had happened and how best to proceed. This latest study,
in
progress, has been expanded to include damaged books, lost and
paid
books, and missing books.

d) Last Copy Monographs Available from Robeson

A special ad hoc committee chaired by Farideh Tehrani was formed to
deal
with the opportunity and problems posed by the Robeson renovation and
concomitant loss of shelf space which will necessitate finding new
homes
for thousands of unique titles currently held at Robeson. Working
with
Jim Nettleman of Robeson, the committee came up with a very good plan
for dealing with the proposed transfers, the bulk of which will come
to
NB, and will be processed by Access Services.

e) Archive of Academic Program Developments and Changes

NBCG members recognized the need to maintain awareness of changes or
new
developments in academic programs that could affect library operations
and collection needs. Howard Dess volunteered to maintain an
archive of
such information that would be transmitted to him by individual
selectors.

f) Updates on Unfilled Monograph Order Status

NBCG selectors have emphasized the desirability of knowing the status
of
monograph orders submitted to TAS. The problem faced by selectors
is
this: we lose sight of orders submitted to TAS for long periods of
time
during which we have no knowledge as to the availability or potential
availability of any given book on order. If selectors could know
for
sure that a given book on order was either out of print or not available
for some other reason, a decision could be made either to maintain
the
status of the order, or to cancel and use the designated funds for
some
other purchase that stood a better chance of actually being acquired
for
our collection in some reasonable period of time. This
problem has
been exacerbated as a result of the late budget problem noted above,
which has compressed the period available for submitting monograph
orders into a much shorter time frame, thereby increasing the chances
that a short run of any new book will be sold out by the time Rutgers
get around to placing an order.

In an attempt to improve this situation, NBCG has requested that TAS
introduce some kind of reporting system, that would provide such
information to selectors, say on a quarterly basis. This request
is
currently under consideration by TAS.

Selectors have expressed interest in learning more about which journals
were being requested by people using the Ask-A-Librarian service.
It is
felt that knowledge of such information would be useful in helping
with
journal cancellation decisions and also to help with decisions about
acquiring prospective new titles. Howard Dess contacted
Natalie
Borisovets about the possibility of setting up an archive of such
information and Natalie agreed to pursue it.

1. Our first major accomplishment was working out allocations
in the
Arts & Humanities for 1999-2000. Our original
allocation formula for
FY 1999-2000 was largely based on historical precedent, but when it
came
time to allocate the money, we discovered that some state funds had
already spent and/or encumbered much more money than we had planned
to
allocate. Given the necessity of covering all actual expenditures,
and
the complexity of trying to cancel individual orders, we decided that
we
had no choice but to take unencumbered money from whatever funds still
had it. In effect, we were forced to penalize some funds to meet
the
commitments in others.

2. The inequities in the distribution of state funds necessitated
by
over-expenditures led to our second major accomplishment--distributing
non-state funds (those not directly tied to a particular subject) to
redress imbalances. That is, we gave selectors of the penalized
state
funds sufficient use of of non-state money to bring their total buying
power more in line with previous years.

3. We also did a much better job in the Arts & Humanities
than in
recent years of spending our non-state funds. We've already spent
90%
or more of a number of funds, and made significant use of others (while
retaining some additional money for contigencies and shortfalls in
state
funds this year.

4. We've begun the process of a more rational allocation plan
for FY
2000/20001. We have a preliminary formula based on some work
I did
during the Spring which we hope to finalize at our next meeting, and
offer the NBCG selectors as a way of beginning the fiscal year.
In
essence I worked out a formula for giving each fund a % (based on
analysis of earlier years) of the total allocation to the Arts &
Humanities (and the Social Sciences). We'll need to use this
as a
starting place, because it does not allow for new developments--new
programs and emphases, but it is at least a starting place.

----------------------------------------------
APPENDIX I-B

Annual Report for NBCG Social
Sciences Subgroup
Mary Fetzer, Chair

The Social Sciences Subgroup held two formal meetings in 1999/2000.
Most of our deliberations are extensively documented through the minutes
distributed to subgroup members and to the Chair, NBCG. Besides
meetings of the subgroup itself and our agenda, the greatest amount
of
time spent by the Chair of the Social Sciences Subgroup was in service
on the Budget Allocation Committee.

As a member of the Budget Allocation Committee, I spent many hours
calculating figures from SIRSI for the various budget codes and then
coming up with projections of expenditures and decisions on allocations
for both state and non-state funds and then monitoring them.
Due to the
inability of SIRSI or availability of collections staff to provide
reports in a desired summary format, librarian-members of the Budget
Allocation Committee had to manually do extensive calculations.
Another
time-consuming project was monitoring the non-state funds for the social
science selectors. All orders came to me from selectors who were
each
dipping into the same large non-state fund code. While each was
allocated a specific amount, I discovered that not all selectors were
cautious about details such as converting British pounds to U.S. dollars
or totaling their expenditures at all! Another time-intensive
project
was overseeing journal cancellations in the social sciences.
In
addition, I met with members of the Missing Books and the Camden Last
Copy Committees to flush out policy and procedures.

Accomplishments by the Social Sciences Subgroup during 1999/2000
included:

· Discussion of Lexis-Nexis and of Westlaw and a recommendation
that the
Chair prepare an electronic resources proposal for Westlaw for FY
2000/2001 when it is hoped that Westlaw will enable IP authentication
· Monitoring and/or discussion of other networked resources
e.g.
Statistical Universe, Ciao, Autographics, Social Sciences Index, Library
Literature, Government Periodicals Universe
· Sponsorship of a demonstration of Dow Jones Interactive done
on
November 23d.
· Initiated issue of building-specific non-state fund codes
and referred
to NBCG for global resolution
· Sponsorship of Collection Manager training which was held
on June
29th.

In addition, the group discussed many other resources and services and
exchanged a great deal of information germane to the social sciences
during 1999/2000.

Out of a subtotal figure of $3,415,900 the science budget allocation
was
$2,227,134.00 for fiscal year 1999/2000. As in previous years,
Science
is the largest sub-group allocation, and most of the funds are allocated
to journal subscriptions.

The 3 Subgroup Chairs met on a monthly basis with the Chair of the NB
Collections Group to discuss budget issues for 2000 and 2001.
In fall
1999, this Budget Allocation Committee examined the NB State
expenditures and the non-state expenditures, and allocated them to
the
fund codes. We first calculated a percentage allocation for each
discipline. I compared the budgeted figures for 1999 and then compared
them to the 2000 figures by adding the encumbered, invoiced and paid
for
figures for 2000 for each fund code. I then subtracted the amount for
journal cancellations from the total budgeted amount, which gave us
an
actual subject subtotal for each fund code. I met frequently with
science selectors during this time in order to assure that selectors
were in agreement with the allocated budget for each discipline.
With
consultation with Howard Dess and Mary Page, we made adjustments to
the
subject subtotals when it seemed appropriate.

We devised new procedures for ordering science reference and general
science materials for non-state funds. For reference books costing
over
$500.00, selectors can send orders to me for charging against the Bender
funds (BENMS), and when this was depleted against the ESCMS (Science
Endowment I). After these funds were depleted, selectors sent orders
to
Howard Dess for charging against the ENWMS and the MERMS funds.

The librarians at the Library of Science and Medicine, the Chang Science
Library and the Mathematics Library discussed budget concerns and
journal cancellation issues at the monthly Science Librarians meetings.
We are currently discussing a new science budget allocation process
for
2001.

Finally, we are working with NB Access Services on revising the
"Procedures for Handling Replacement Books" to include damaged book,
lost and paid books
and missing books.

NBCG assumes responsibility and oversight for all aspects of collection
development in the New Brunswick libraries, including budgeting,
allocation of funds to specific subject categories, location of print
collections, and maintaining a reasonable balance between available
selectors and subject categories to be covered. For historical
reasons,
primary emphasis is still on print collections, but electronic access
is
growing in importance at exponential rates and also falls under the
purview of NBCG.

Membership in NBCG is voluntary for all New Brunswick selectors.
A
chairperson is elected for a two year term by the membership-at-large.
Current Chair is Howard M. Dess, whose term of office runs through
June
30, 2001.

NBCG is subdivided into the following four subgroups, basically by broad
subject discipline, and the membership of each is voluntary and
self-selected: